As if I have not given you enough assignment, I now pose twelve questions that you might want to send to HURIWA/Onwubiko:
In this ensuing discussion, I am going to refer to the President's Special Adviser on Corruption in question as Mr. X, because there exists a name riddle about his identity.
1. With what name was Mr. X born? That is, what names are on his birth certificate? Documentary proof of authenticity please.
2. With what name did Mr. X attend secondary school at Ogoja, and do his School Certificate, pass or fail or neither? Documentary proof of authenticity please.
3. There is a Statement of Result (not Certificate) being splashed around, belonging to one Ofem Okoi Ofem. Is that correct? Documentary proof of authenticity please.
4. Is Mr. X, the Special Adviser, claiming to be Okoi Ofem Okono-Obla? Documentary proof of authenticity please. (I know he is, on the pages of newspapers, among other places.)
5. Is Mr. X claiming to have an NYSC certificate? In what name was that NYSC issued? Documentary proof of authenticity please.
6. Is Mr X claiming to be a graduate of University of Jos Faculty of Law? In what name did the University issue its certificate? Documentary proof of authenticity please.
7. Mr. X must have been admitted into the University of Jos before beginning to attend classes. In what name was he admitted?Documentary proof of authenticity please.
8. Mr X must have presented a WASCE certificate or Statement of Result to be admitted into UniJos. In what name did he present it? Documentary proof of authenticity please.
9. Mr X must have presented a UniJos certificate or Statement of Result to be admitted into Law School Abuja. In what name did he present it? Documentary proof of authenticity please.
10. There is a claim that one Ofem Okoi Ofem changed his name to Okoi Ofem Okono-Obla. Is this true, when and why?Documentary proof of authenticity please.
11. When a WAEC official testified about a result befiorevl NASS, was a certificate and/or certificate/produced of Ofem Okoi Ofem or of Okoi Ofem Okono-Obla? Why, whichever name? Documentary proof of authenticity please.
12. Finally, are the authenticities of all these documents confirmed or not? That is, is it possible that any or all of the documents being used to discuss this issue are fake, for political or other reasons?
Again, I ask all of these questions because the Central assertion is that the statement of results of one Ofem Okoi Ofem was once changed by Mr X to enable him gain admission into UniJos law and pass through Law School, whereafter he changed his name to Okoi Ofem Okono-Obla. My central question is what was he born as, and why would he change his name to Okoi Ofem Okono-Obla after so many years?
Inquiring minds want to know. Again, something does not compute in the allegations, and there are more to them than meet the eye. Despite what you think, I still have an open mind on this issue.
And there you have it.
Bolaji Aluko
On Saturday, August 4, 2018, Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:
Farooq Kperogi:It's me again, Bolaji Aluko, your favorite "apologist"...Your essay below refers..... You have now structured the back-and-forth that we had earlier into this full essay, but unfortunately you did not even attempt to incorporate any investigations into some questions that I had posed earlier on the subject. Rather, you continued to rely on your one source of investigation - HURIWA, Human Rights Watch - and your own predisposed bias to believe the narrative being pushed. You then deftly ended with a preemptive strike:Xxx"Government apologists like to plagiarize the late Dr. Yusufu Bala Usman by calling any unmasking of government's fraudulent anti-corruption fight as "corruption fighting back." No, corruption isn't fighting back. It's more a case of corruption selectively fighting corruption. That's a dead-end fight because it is rooted in crying injustice and double standard."XxxFarooq, ehn, you try,......but one will be undeterred in once again engaging you with several posers.1. Do you know that HURIWA is one and only one person: Emmanuel Onwubiko, and not the" association" of human rights watch writers that he claims to be? Just Google "HURIWA, Onwubiko" for yourself, and you will see the dussembling of your primary source of information and his real agenda and modus operandi:Read in particular:And his own defenceMisrepresrntation of one's "association" is not coming to equity with clean hands.2. The case of forgery of one certificate document is being based here and there on un-authenticated documents, documents that may themselves have been forged. Is it then not proper to get authorized, stamped and approved documents all the way bsck to the birth certificate of the subject in question to prove this particular forgery?3. Your essay is peppered with hard conclusions based on quite a number of bland speculative statements.. For example, you writeXxxObla possibly stole his dead relative's "O" level certificate in 1982, fudged it to include Literature in English, which the dead relative didn't sit for, used the result to gain admission to the university, and then changed his name decades later.XxxPossibly? Where now is the dead relative buried - and his death certificate?You continued:XXXThe dead relative was known as Ofem Okoi Ofem, the same name Obono-Obla bore until 2015, as I'll show shortly.XXXReally? Until 2015? What about this piece of July 2010Thursday, July 29, 2010
'' IS IT ABOUT THE UGEP MAN'' (PART 11) BY OKOI OFEM OBONO-OBLA
...... Materials deleted...• Obono-Obla is a Barrister, Human Rights Activist, Essayists & a Traditional Ruler.XxxIn 2013, this is what I readXxxAPC Excluded From Polls
The exclusion of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been challenged by the party at the Calabar High Court.
The Suit No. HC/302/2013, challenging the disqualification of APC by CROSIEC, was filed last week by the party's counsel, Okoi Obono-Obla, at the High Court.XxxOr are these YET a different Obono-Obla?You wrote:XxxI viewed the photo attached to the statement of result from Mary Knoll College, Ogoja, Cross River State, that was issued to Ofem Okoi Ofem, and it looks nothing like the younger version Obono-Obla. So it is entirely plausible that Obono-Obla impersonated a dead relative. If this can be established conclusively, that would be a criminal offense on its own.XxxEntirely plausible? So it has not been established conclusively? So did he submit a fake statement of result back then with a picture that did not look like him, or is this a more recent concoction? I just don't understand the logic, maybe because I am not a certificate forger?Not done, you continued:XxxObono-Obla's probable criminal impersonation of a dead person is worsened by unassailable evidence of his criminal fudging of the relative's school certificate. Ofem Okoi Ofem, whose certificate Obono-Obla used to get admission into the University of Jos, had four credits (C6 in English, A1 in Government, C4 in Bible Knowledge, and C5 in Economics), was absent for Literature in English, and got failing grades in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Biology.XxxPOSSIBLE stealing of dead relative,'s certificate, PLAUSIBLE, PROBABLE impersonation, but further allegation of inserting an unattained grade in just one subject? There was no relative with much better results?Finally I point to your patagraph:XxxPerhaps in a bid to cover his tracks in anticipation of an "anti-corruption" job in the Buhari government, Ofem Okoi Ofem legally changed his name to Okoi Obono-Obla in October 2015. TheCable of May 28, 2018 reported HURIWA to have found that "[A]fter he was called to the bar in 1991, Ofem Okoi Ofem, for reasons best known to him, changed his name to Okoi Obono-Obla. See the Deed of Change of Name (ANNEXTURE E) and confirmation of name change issued by the registrar of the Supreme Court on 15th October 2015."XxxPERHAPS..... for reasons best known to him? How soon after 1991 - or was it as late as October 2015, which would be when "he changed his name decades later"? Why? So what was Obono-Obla's name before he stole Ofem Okoi Ofem's certif|cate? Or what was Ofem Okoi Ofem's name before Obono-Obla stole his certificate? Some things just don't compute to this Sherlock Holmes mind yet.As a result, I don't know what the real criminality is herr, but there are Swiss cheese holes in your current narrative.And there you have it.Bolaji AlukoOn Saturday, August 4, 2018, <farooqkperogi@gmail.com> wrote:--Saturday, August 4, 2018
Corruption Fighting Corruption: The Tragicomic Case of Obono-Obla
By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.Twitter: @farooqkperogiOkoi Obono-Obla, Special Assistant to the President on Prosecutions and Head of Special Investigation Panel for Recovery of Public Property, embodies the tragicomic disconnect between the Buhari administration's self-construal of itself as an "anti-corruption" government and the cold hard fact of its deep embeddedness in and toleration of mind-boggling corruption of different shades.Obono-Obla's corruption started in the early 1980s. According to the Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA), which painstakingly scrutinized his records, Obono-Obla possibly stole his dead relative's "O" level certificate in 1982, fudged it to include Literature in English, which the dead relative didn't sit for, used the result to gain admission to the university, and then changed his name decades later.The dead relative was known as Ofem Okoi Ofem, the same name Obono-Obla bore until 2015, as I'll show shortly. I viewed the photo attached to the statement of result from Mary Knoll College, Ogoja, Cross River State, that was issued to Ofem Okoi Ofem, and it looks nothing like the younger version Obono-Obla. So it is entirely plausible that Obono-Obla impersonated a dead relative. If this can be established conclusively, that would be a criminal offense on its own.
This photo doesn't look to me like the younger version of the man above
Obono-Obla's probable criminal impersonation of a dead person is worsened by unassailable evidence of his criminal fudging of the relative's school certificate. Ofem Okoi Ofem, whose certificate Obono-Obla used to get admission into the University of Jos, had four credits (C6 in English, A1 in Government, C4 in Bible Knowledge, and C5 in Economics), was absent for Literature in English, and got failing grades in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Biology.The University of Jos, like most Nigerian universities, required (and still requires) five credits, including credits in English and Literature in English, to qualify to study law. Ofem Okoi Ofem's school certificate fell short of these requirements, so Obono-Obla fudged the result. He fraudulently inserted C6 as the grade earned for Literature in English, which the original candidate didn't sit for. That forgery achieved two things: it increased the credit passes of the certificate to five and satisfied the Literature in English prerequisite to study law. Obono-Obla used this falsified result to gain admission to study law—of all courses!—at the University of Jos.We know all this because of the revelations that came out of the House of Representatives' ad hoc committee that investigated "the legality of the operations of the special investigation panel for the recovery of public property."And this isn't a case of mistaken identity. Every detail of the certificate Obono-Obla presented to the University of Jos— and to the presidency as a precondition for getting his job— matches the record kept at the West African Examination Council. His public profile also says he attended Mary Knoll College in Ogoja, and the year of graduation he indicated on his profiles is consistent with the record at WAEC. There is no question that it's the same person.In his testimony before the House of Representatives on June 6, 2018, WAEC's Deputy Registrar, Femi Ola, said, "From our record, the genuine candidate is Ofem Okoi Ofem, 09403/247 of Mary Knoll College, Ogoja. The exam number and number of subjects are the same. The difference is the grade in English literature in which he claimed to have scored C6 despite being marked absent in the true, certified copy." Daily Trust reported that the deputy registrar characterized Obono-Obla's certificate as "fake, not genuine" and therefore invalid.Perhaps in a bid to cover his tracks in anticipation of an "anti-corruption" job in the Buhari government, Ofem Okoi Ofem legally changed his name to Okoi Obono-Obla in October 2015. TheCable of May 28, 2018 reported HURIWA to have found that "[A]fter he was called to the bar in 1991, Ofem Okoi Ofem, for reasons best known to him, changed his name to Okoi Obono-Obla. See the Deed of Change of Name (ANNEXTURE E) and confirmation of name change issued by the registrar of the Supreme Court on 15th October 2015."Apart from possible impersonation and proven forgery, Obono-Obla was also accused of corruption in the management of the finances of the presidential panel he heads and of blackmailing the people he was supposed to be recovering looted funds from with threats of media exposes if they didn't offer him bribes. The allegations were credible enough to cause the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, himself a coddler of corrupt people such as Abdulrasheed Maina, to fire him and to bar him from granting press interviews and issuing press releases in November 2017."Obla is also instructed to henceforth seek clearance from the AGF before granting any media interview or making press releases on official matters, while he is directed to promptly provide a detailed up-to-date report on the activities of the panel to the Minister for onward transmission to the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo," the justice minister's letter of November 5, 2017 said.As is now the norm with Buhari when it comes to corruption involving people he perceives as "loyal" to him, Obono-Obla was reinstated and his press gag lifted. But, again, after a methodical and comprehensive investigation of Obono-Obla, which included a report from the Auditor-General of the Federation that confirms his financial indiscretions, the House of Representatives, on July 31, recommended that Obono-Obla be fired, arrested, and prosecuted for corruption and forgery. It also recommended that the University of Jos revoke the degree it awarded him and for the Body of Benchers to disbar him.It is both depressing and comedic that one of the president's points men in the "fight against corruption" is himself wrapped in multilayered, eye-watering fraud. As usual, nothing will happen to him. And that's precisely why there is now a complete, irretrievable loss of faith not just in the government's "anti-corruption fight" but in law and justice. Court orders are routinely disobeyed by government and corrupt people who are "loyal" to the president are protected from the consequences of their corruption.Obono-Obla's case particularly stands out like a sore thumb because he is supposed to be in the forefront in the "fight against corruption." But corruption cannot fight corruption. As the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr once said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that." You can't be a criminal impersonator, an audacious certificate forger, and a venal public official who uses his position to defraud people and the country and claim to be an anti-corruption fighter.Government apologists like to plagiarize the late Dr. Yusufu Bala Usman by calling any unmasking of government's fraudulent anti-corruption fight as "corruption fighting back." No, corruption isn't fighting back. It's more a case of corruption selectively fighting corruption. That's a dead-end fight because it is rooted in crying injustice and double standard.Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.Associate ProfessorJournalism & Emerging Media
School of Communication & MediaSocial Science BuildingRoom 5092 MD 2207402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State UniversityKennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.comTwitter: @farooqkperogAuthor of Glocal English: The Changing Face and Forms of Nigerian English in a Global World
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
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